best way to build a new city and zone...?

[LCcmdr]

I've invested my first 30 hours or so into this magnificent but harsh game. Every failed game experience informs me further; but, I'm stumped on the idea of building new cities. Though I love this level of micromanagement, I'm a relative newbie.

Thanks for any help and investment...

LC

[mroyer]

ORIGINAL: LCcmdr

I've invested my first 30 hours or so into this magnificent but harsh game. Every failed game experience informs me further; but, I'm stumped on the idea of building new cities. Though I love this level of micromanagement, I'm a relative newbie.

Thanks for any help and investment...

LC

Cities are one-to-one with zones, a zone can only have one city (something that confused me at first).
To create a new zone, select a friendly-controlled hex with an existing asset and is at least 5 hexes from any other existing city. Then click the [New Zone] button.

That will create a zone and the selected asset becomes the city. If I recall correctly, the six surrounding hexes will be part of the new zone if they were friendly-owned. To add territory to the new zone, use the [Zone Borders] button.

-Mark R.

[zgrssd]

Step 0:
Do not build a town unless you realy need too. A few big towns are better then the same population split over a lot of small ones.
Generally Admin Strain is the only rason you should even consider it. You can manage it by building and upgrading more stuff within 6 tiles of the city a lot of the times. And anything less then 10% you can ignore. You need a few large assets realy far to get it high.

Asuming you still need one, this is what to do:

Step 1:
Recruit some colonists. You need at least 100.
After you have the initial settlement, you can also settle recruits but only as civilians. But with Colonsits you can directly send them into the workforce

Step 2:
Find a good spot.
Reportedly if you found a city on a existing Free Folk Town, you will automatically get the entire towns population as city population.
Beyond that, pick a spot that will prevent a lot of current and future Admin Strain.

Step 3:
Enable Emergency food and inject a lot of cash into the Private Economy (both directly and via worker pay), focus all future immigraiton on getting enough for a Private Farm T1. It needs quite some time, about 1000 Private Credits and free non-worker population to build one. And without the Farm or E-Food, the Private Citizens have nothing to eat.

Step 4:
High Happiness and Private Worker Pay should draw in more Immigration from other cities and free towns.
But keep settling unused Recruits or Colonsits too.

Step 5:
All my cities have at least a T1 Truck stop in the City hex. Just to run local Assets. More if they need it. Particular far ones might have a Rail Station or at least Head as well, to get supplies to the city. Existing ones are a good place to found the city.
Ocassionally I build a low tier farm - unlike food, water travels for free. So it can be cheaper to produce locally, then to ship stuff in.
With building be realy carefull not to overload logistics. Food can be a large consumer. When Building, Metals usually are a huge one. And if you got soldiers around, they will need a lot of food, ammo and fuel too.

[eddieballgame]

Good points all, & yes...Admin Strain is the primary reason to build.
In preparation for your new 'city', actually a village, I recommend having a Truck Station already built & even upgraded as once your village is placed it will be sometime before you will be able to do so.
Also, in preparation for your new village...have plenty of colonists ready to go.
I recommend at least 500 &, depending on the importance strategically...keep sending workers & pop to allow for the city to function & level up.
Always check all your villages, towns, cities, etc to make sure there is enough workers available for any & all jobs.
The UI is very friendly per keeping an eye on this.
You may want/need to 'Allow Emergency Food' as stated as having enough food is essential & adjusting your zone borders is also an option not to be neglected.

[LCcmdr]

Learning by failing so many times has made me ask these questions--since my games hit the wall (losing food, money, and encroaching poor leadership). Reopening one such failure and building a second city has literary revitalized the game. Perhaps I'm not warrior enough to go conquer my minor farmer factions (I do absorb them); but by conquering the non-aligned lands I end up without a major city, with assets built everywhere. I believe this is exactly what the extra city option is for. Now, I'm experimenting (alas, vacation time is ending) and will be asking more questions.

Thanks for the great responses!!!

[Don_Kiyote]

a Truck Station already built & even upgraded

The asset level limit is probably the trickiest part of founding a new city. Beware! Once you found a new city, at tier 1 or 'Village', *all* of the assets within that Village Zone will be limited to tier 1.

*However*, if you build up the asset *first*, while it is still being painfully administered [:@] by the probably far away but relatively large existing city, and then create the New Zone, an existing Tier 2 or higher asset can safely be administered by a tiny village. Which is totally what you should do.